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CORRIGHT DEFOSIIi 



EDUCATION FOR 
DEMOCRACY 



BY 

ALICE DAVIS 



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XTbe Tkntcfterbocfter press 

NEW YORK 

I9I9 






Copyright, 1919 

BY 

ALICE DAVIS 



JAN iO!G20 



(Q)GI,A:3 5UaG8 



EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY 



Education fundamentally and vitally affects 
every individual member of the state. It is the 
most important human problem, having a direct 
bearing upon all the interrelated and complicated 
activities incident to every phase of social inter- 
course. In a general way, there is practically 
universal agreement as to the necessity for what 
is called the education of youth, although a wide 
diversity of opinion exists concerning the method 
or methods to be adopted, the length of time neces- 
sary for the completion of a given course of in- 
struction, what constitutes adequate educational 
preparation, and various other related questions. 
Almost everyone believes that children should at- 
tend school a certain number of hours a day for 
a period of years. The progress made in the acqui- 
sition of knowledge through such school attend- 
ance is supposed to be more or less accurately 
registered by periodical examinations, and the 
attainment of a recognized standard of proficiency 
regularly attested by formal reports, certificates, 
and diplomas. This routine attendance at school 

3 



marked by measured results at regular intervals 
is quite commonly accepted as a necessary pre- 
liminary to the youth's entrance upon a career — 
professional, business, or industrial. The length 
of time spent at school and the subjects studied 
are determined largely by the economic condition 
of the parents, and the state of public sentiment 
as crystallized into law governing these matters. 
The tendency toward the general enactment of 
compulsory education legislation indicates a health- 
ful and steadily increasing interest in the subject, 
and a recognition of its transcendent importance. 

The work selected by the youth after leaving 
school depends partly upon personal inclination, 
mainly upon the kinds of positions to be filled, 
the remuneration attached thereto, the possibility 
of securing, and the ability to perform the work. 

This rule of action is according to traditional 
educational formula, and generally accepted con- 
ventions. The plan is not wholly devoid of merit 
since it recognizes, however vaguely and imper- 
fectly, the necessity for training the young. It 
is not impossible that some genuine teachers may 
find their way into the system provided for the 
execution of this program, and that some real 
educational work may be done. But this scheme 
has one fundamental defect, so glaring that it 
should challenge the attention of the most casual, 
the most superficial observer, and that is that 
evQn in its most elementary provisions, this program 
does not yet include all children. There are still 
many who cannot read and write, who thus lack 

4 



the rudiments of acquisition and expression, and 
who also receive no systematic technical nor 
industrial training. Just what is to be expected 
of such children, what they are to do, what they 
are to be, doesn't seem to be the concern of a^y 
one. They are wholly without educational in- 
heritance of the regular kind. The World War 
has just revealed with startling clearness the 
impossible situation along this line. 

But apart from this not inconsiderable per- 
centage of real illiterates, by far the larger number 
of the children are given extremely meager school 
facilities, obtain the very slightest educational 
equipment. Their time spent in school is entirely 
too short, and often it is not utilized most advan- 
tageously. The small number that remain, have 
unlimited advantages so far as money can supply 
them for an indefinite period of time. From this 
inequality in educational opportunity for children, 
it is clear that from the standpoint of human 
equality and preparation for Democratic citizen- 
ship, the traditional educational system reaches 
a very low standard. 

Indeed, with its present organization, aim, and 
equipment of teachers, the school system would 
be extremely defective even though every indi- 
vidual child enjoyed the advantages which the 
smallest number now possess. In organization, 
the public school system follows the military and 
industrial plan with its various grades of super- 
visory officials. In aim, there is lack of vision, 
and an imperfect understanding of purpose. The 

5 



haphazard equipment of teachers is too glaring 
to need comment. Our educational system there- 
fore must be characterized as unprogressive, 
antiquated, fundamentally undemocratic, and 
inadequate. 

The most important human problem is educa- 
tion. This cannot be made too emphatic. But 
what is education? What are its functions? 
What is its scope? In what manner and to what 
extent is it to affect the child as an individual 
social unit? What should be its methods? How 
is it to influence the whole organized group, the 
entire citizen body which we call the state? What 
are its proper agencies ? 

Education we may call the instruction and the 
training which help to develop the latent possibili- 
ties of the child for good, and to modify, suppress, 
eliminate those qualities which are evil in their 
nature. Of course education also connotes teach- 
ing, explanation, imparting knowledge, on the 
part of the teacher, and acquisition of knowledge 
by the child. But this teaching and learning, 
while important and necessary, are an extremely 
small part of true education. One may possess 
a vast knowledge of facts, covering a wide range 
of subjects, and be very improperly, very super- 
ficially and poorly educated. An essential factor 
in education is the development of the power to 
think, of the ability to solve all problems which 
may arise out of one's intricate relations as a social 
unit. Mental poise and a sane philosophy of life 
must also come through educational processes. 

6 



But while the acquisition of knowledge is by 
no means the whole of education, it is a great 
mistake to minimize the importance of knowledge. 
The present tendency to provide the most meager 
educational advantages for the apparently dull 
or stupid child, and to substitute a superficial 
hodgepodge called preparation for social service 
is pernicious and most reprehensible. Knowl- 
edge, profound and varied, is not only desirable, 
but absolutely necessary in the proper equipment 
of the child. The results of ignorant bungling 
along various lines, including diplomacy and state- 
craft are sufficiently obvious and numerous to 
emphasize the necessity for the possession of vast 
knowledge. Its importance cannot be overesti- 
mated. Furthermore it seems reasonable to 
suppose that the mental stimulus required in the 
acquisition of knowledge is in itself a favorable 
factor in educational development. 

Nevertheless, the fact remains that education 
includes much more than knowledge, even the 
most comprehensive. It connotes a cultivated 
mental attitude, discrimination, and stimulated 
aesthetic sense. Failure to surround children 
with influences which produce these results is 
failure in educational essentials. 

The function of education is to develop the 
child to the fullest possible extent as an individual 
and as a social unit in the broadest way. This 
means ideal democratic citizenship, citizenship 
for a democracy, and surely we need not even 
consider any other form of government within the 

7 



range of possibility, as genuine universal education 
precludes the possibility of the existence of any 
other form. No one truly educated wishes to 
possess any kind of advantage at the expense of 
another, and only a democratic form of govern- 
ment makes possible both the highest form of 
individualism and genuine altruism. 

In educational work, naturally it is important 
that the method adopted, be in harmony with the 
aim and purpose of education. It is necessary, 
therefore, to guard carefully against the adoption 
of any plan which tends in the slightest degree to 
nullify the primary purpose. This makes school 
organization a vitally important problem. Our 
present public school plan of organization is a 
regular hierarchy and embodies the factory 
supervisory feature. 

It must be understood that the teacher is the 
most important factor in any educational system. 
This is readily admitted verbally, and glowing 
encomiums are pronounced upon teachers in lieu 
of adequate salary and professional recognition, 
but the vicious plan of supervision militates seri- 
ously against the influence of teachers, and impairs 
irreparably their usefulness by robbing them of 
self-confidence and independence of action. 

The long overdue revolution in school organiza- 
tion must apparently await the awakening of the 
great mass of teachers, a slow movement, for teach- 
ers as a class are extremely conservative. They ac- 
cept what comes in the form of school regulations, 
and aside from a certain amount of grumbling 

8 



about details and sporadic ebullition of indignation 
behind closed doors, they jog placidly along the 
beaten educational pathway, quite oblivious to 
abstacles in the road, and unconcerned about their 
removal. Adherence to form, and daily routine 
drudgery are calmly accepted as concomitants 
of the educational process. 

Teachers as a group are docile, even submissive, 
to an alarming extent. This is probably due pri- 
marily to the industrial plan of school organiza- 
tion, to the factory-boss type of supervision. It 
seems well-nigh impossible to believe that mem- 
bers of the supervisory force have not discovered 
the fatal defects of this system. Skepticism con- 
cerning their inexplicable failure to do so is natural 
and unavoidable, and we can only escape the 
necessity for impugning their good faith by the 
conviction that they are the victims professionally 
of the system by which they profit pecuniarily. 
If honestly they have never been impelled to 
question the merits of the factory type of school 
organization, this failure constitutes in itself the 
most conclusive indictment of the traditional 
pernicious mechanical system. 

The first essential in educational reform is the 
abolishment of the supervisory system, and from 
this would naturally follow the equalization of 
salaries and positions for the whole teaching corps. 
The far-reaching importance of this reform can 
be realized only when we observe the injustice 
and unreasonableness involved in the operation 
of the existing supervisory system. Very often 

9 



some grade of supervisor inspects the work of 
teachers in perhaps a dozen different departments, 
the teachers in all departments having specialized 
in their own subjects, and the supervisor having 
had special training in not more than one subject, 
possibly in none at all. Supposing him to have 
had most excellent training in one subject only, 
surely that does not qualify him to judge the 
character of the work in eleven other different 
departments, or in one other. Then it is obvi- 
ously unjust to the teachers and to the public 
who defray the expense to pay supervisory officials 
a salary ranging from two to ten times as much 
as that of the teachers equally qualified for their 
particular line of work. The archaic and silly 
methods generally employed by the supervisor 
in inspecting a teacher's work, tend only to em- 
phasize the ridiculousness of the judgment of the 
work as indicated by the rating given the teacher. 
Very often the supervisor reaches his conclusion 
concerning the character of the teacher's work 
by spending a few moments in the classroom 
listening to questions, answers, and explanations. 
Through ignorance of the subject, or lack of fa- 
miliarity with the particular phase of the matter 
under discussion, he may be wholly unqualified 
to arrive at an intelligent conclusion respecting 
the merits of the work done. Beside he is likely 
to leave out of account factors which materially 
affect the situation. Not infrequently the sub- 
ject matter of a given lesson does not lend itself 
to anything in the nature of spectacular eluci- 

lO 



dation, or even impressively logical treatment. 
Again there are days when meteorological condi- 
tions affect pupils to such an extent that the 
teacher can with the greatest effort only partly 
counteract the adverse influence. Some days 
the teacher is physically or mentally quite in- 
capacitated temporarily for even approximately 
her best work. It may be said that on such occa- 
sions she should not be in the classroom, but the 
reply to that objection is that the pupils are 
much less likely to suffer from her presence than 
they are by being taught by a substitute, and in 
justice to the teacher it must be noted that she, 
herself, may not be conscious of the handicap, 
while the effect may be very apparent to an 
observer. It requires a very judicially minded, 
sane, and honest, clear-thinking person to properly 
estimate the possible result of these various ele- 
ments in combination or singly, and the experi- 
ence of teachers does not indicate the possession 
of such attributes by the most usual type of 
supervisor. 

Human inertia, conservatism, the tendency to 
preserve existing institutions, to uphold the estab- 
lished order is nowhere more in evidence than in 
the retention of the supervisory system in the 
public schools. Originally, when educational fa- 
cilities were very meager, the theory underlying 
supervision probably was that the supervising 
teacher might help the young, inexperienced, and 
poorly equipped teacher to do better work by 
kindly suggestion and friendly counsel. As the 

II 



public school system expanded, the supervisory 
feature became fixed, partly for the reason just 
given, and largely because some regular form of 
organization being thought necessary, the familiar 
industrial and military type was used as a model 
somewhat unconsciously, perhaps, or at least 
without recognition of the ultimately evil outcome. 
If, however, a rational basis for supervision once 
existed, it has been eliminated by changed con- 
ditions. It is no longer necessary to employ 
poorly prepared teachers. Now there are ade- 
quate facilities for the proper education of teach- 
ers, or if there are not, they may easily be enlarged. 
There are now definite requirements which the 
prospective teacher must meet before receiving 
an appointment. If these requirements are not 
sufficiently high, they may be increased, the teach- 
ing standard may be indefinitely raised. It is 
doubtless true, lamentably true, that the institu- 
tions of learning where men and women are 
trained for teaching do not provide the best 
atmosphere for the purpose, do not supply ideal 
surroundings for philosophical discipline, but in 
these same institutions are trained the supervising 
force, and the facilities are as good for one group 
as for the other, the defects no more marked for 
teachers than for supervisors. The educational 
facilities are the same for both. 

The evils of the supervisory system are numer- 
ous and extreme. It tends to repress initiative 
in both teachers and pupils, and develops in both 
the habit of accepting suggestions and require- 



merits without thinking or reasoning about them, 
thus preventing the highest development of the 
individual which must come through useful social 
expression. It tends to create a teaching level 
of mediocre uniformity, and to cause school work 
to degenerate into spiritless, routine drudgery. 
By repressing socially directed self-expression of 
the individual, this system withholds from the 
state a potential dynamic force, vitally important, 
and indispensable in the attainment of ideal 
democracy. The system is cumbersome, expen- 
sive, undemocratic, unethical, and unprofessional. 

Thinking teachers must have long since be-, 
come convinced that the scheme of organization 
for industrial corporations forms a most unsatis- 
factory model for educational institutions. They 
know that it has been demonstrated to be a hope- 
less failure, that it does not secure even approxi- 
mately best educational results, that it makes 
inevitable vast human waste through failure to 
obtain the highest achievement on the part of 
both teachers and pupils, that it does not and 
cannot provide the environment for proper charac- 
ter development, nor the requisite training for 
alert, aggressive, able citizenship. 

Under this system the best qualified teachers 
are not likely to gain promotion in position, nor 
advance in salary, for perfectly obvious reasons. 
Such a system places a premium upon unquestion- 
ing compliance with rules and regulations imposed 
by the supervisory agencies, it encourages unrea- 
soning acceptance of the supervisor's dictums. 

13 



Teachers who find it possible to adapt themselves 
to this routine, treadmill, devitalized school 
mechanism are those who in time become members 
of the supervising staff, and continue the dead- 
ening school process. It is therefore inevitable 
that the rules governing the various school activi- 
ties of the teaching corps are made and enforced 
by the most poorly equipped of all the teaching 
force. 

Such teachers have carefully avoided anything 
remotely resembling independent thinking. They 
have solicitously refrained from the slightest 
move tending toward friction in the smoothly 
running machinery. Cases of glaring injustice 
and downright stupidity affecting both pupils 
and teachers, they refer to as the business of 
**our superiors." Needless to say there is no 
esprit de corps, under such conditions. There 
can be no animation in a machine. It is marvelous 
that teachers who understand how seriously 
educational work is handicapped by such a system 
can maintain their self-respect without opposing 
it. They do not seem to realize the plain truth 
that failure to combat a recognized evil is to 
tacitly approve it, nor do they apparently com- 
prehend the equally simple fact that acquiescence 
in whatever deviates from moral rectitude pre- 
vents the development of moral fiber, and renders 
impossible the growth of vigorous character 
components. 

Teachers who recognize and admit the failure 
and viciousness of the supervisory system, and 

14 



there are many such, and yet permit themselves 
to drift with the current of tradition, either 
because they have not been able to formulate 
what seems to them a satisfactory working plan, 
or because they are too indifferent to attempt 
to do so, are living illustrations of the unethical 
and unprofessional callousness which this vicious 
system produces in its victims. 

No great acumen is required to understand that 
school supervision necessarily militates against 
the recognition of teaching as a profession, that 
it tends to keep down salaries below a proper 
standard of living, for the great body of teachers. 
There is no profession whose members are super- 
vised by one another in the performance of their 
duties. Such a condition is unthinkable. It is 
astonishing that the expensive uselessness of 
supervision has not impressed boards of education, 
but unfortunately boards of education are in- 
clined to leave academic questions to be settled 
by their "educational experts," who are members 
of the highest grade of the supervising hierarchy 
and the chief supporters of the system. 

The expensiveness does not consist simply or 
wholly in the relatively high salaries paid the 
supervising officials but equally in the extremely 
low and inadequate salaries given to the large 
body of teachers. Nothing is so costly as in- 
justice, and the inequality in teachers' remunera- 
tion is notoriously unjust. Those who really 
teach, who do the hard work, receive the smallest 
compensation, and this inevitably affects, ad- 



versely the morale of the teaching corps. That 
supervision is useless one can readily understand 
by observing its operation. Supervisors report 
upon the work of teachers in the form of some 
•sort of rating. This report simply registers the 
supervisor's judgment of the character of the 
teacher's work. It does not change the work. 
If the teacher's service is of a high grade, what 
benefit accrues to her or to her pupils by having 
the fact recorded? If the service rendered is 
poor how is the teacher helped by a statement to 
that effect? The supervisor's dictum does not 
improve the teaching, it serves only to indicate 
his estimate of the teacher's ability in the per- 
formance of her work. If her achievement is 
good, it remains good, if inferior, it remains so. 
This being true, of what possible value is the rating 
given the teacher by the supervisor? It may be 
objected that this statement of the case is not 
correct, that the supervisor in his visits to the 
teacher, makes helpful criticism which results in 
improved work. That may be the theory ex- 
pounded by the supervising force, but those who 
doubt the accuracy of the above account are 
referred to the testimony of teachers. A system 
which is both expensive and useless cannot be 
reasonably commended, but the worst features of 
supervision are yet to be noticed. 

It is understood, of course, that no one's judg- 
ment is infallible, and this is true when he is 
impelled by the best motive, when he honestly 
desires to be absolutely just. Now, let us suppose 

i6 



that in a given case the supervisor's opinion is 
so clearly erroneous that the teacher concerned 
appeals to the next higher grade of official. It is 
probable, almost certain, in such a case that the 
teacher will secure slight consideration, and no 
redress, and that in the future she will have to 
count upon the lasting enmity of both officials. 
Supervising officials of all grades generally sup- 
port one another upon the principle, presumably, 
that if they do not ''hang together they will hang 
separately." If the teacher decides to appeal to 
the board of education, the probability is that 
the supervisors will score heavily, for boards of 
education unhappily have not yet fathomed the 
reason for the cohesive tendency of educational 
''experts," nor have they yet learned to appre- 
ciate the extremely unpleasant position of the 
teacher who has the temerity to question the 
wisdom and integrity of a supervising official. 
The narrowness, pettiness, and vindictiveness, 
the capacity for injustice which characterize men 
and women holding supervisory positions are 
well-nigh incredible to the uninitiated. Cham- 
pions of the supervisory system may assert that 
what has been stated here is simply an arraign- 
ment of individuals, of people who secure positions 
which they are totally unqualified to fill, that 
such persons are unfortunate accidents which 
human foresight cannot altogether prevent. Now 
it may be readily conceded that this point of view 
is entitled to consideration, and it must be frankly 
admitted that some people holding supervisory 



positions are less reprehensible than others. But 
the policy of school supervision is essentially erro- 
neous, and inherently inadaptable to a system of 
democratic education. It unavoidably suggests 
and resembles political autocracy, and industrial 
bossism. There is no place for official grade in 
the work of teaching which should be a profession. 
Supervision renders practically impossible inde- 
pendent thought and action in the classroom. It 
subordinates initiative to routine. It tends to 
uniformity in method which means inequality 
in achievement as no two people do the same 
thing in the same way, naturally, and with equal 
results. The system of supervision superinduces 
in the teacher a state of nervousness which impairs 
her physical and mental vitality. It often causes 
a complete collapse in teachers at a period when, 
taught by experience, they should have attained 
the very acme of efficiency. It prevents the 
liberation of educational oxygen and creates a 
stiffing atmosphere in which neither teacher nor 
pupil is capable of the greatest effort or the highest 
achievement. The supervisory system predicates 
inequality instead of lack of identity. Its effect 
upon the pupils whose highest welfare is, of course, 
the preliminary consideration, is distinctly bad. 
It tends to create distrust of teachers, their ability 
or integrity, and to lessen the respect and esteem 
which pupils spontaneously entertain for their 
instructors. The range of possible injury along 
this line is great, culminating in the case of teach- 
ers who are actually being persecuted by super- 

i8 



visors, a condition which not infrequently obtains. 
Supervision connotes interminable red tape, and 
an exasperating waste of time and energy in the 
compilation of meaningless statistics. It places 
a premium upon unintelligent action, upon un- 
thinking compliance with regulations imposed 
by the supervising officials. It tends to divest 
teachers of a sense of responsibility, and affects 
pupils similarly. It places honest, sincere, able 
teachers at the mercy of unscrupulous, vindictive, 
petty tyrants. 

The supervising system in educational work 
has no mitigating features. It is wholly, abso- 
lutely, unqualifiedly vicious. Teaching cannot be- 
come a profession until this pernicious system is 
relegated to the scrap heap of obsolete institutions. 

Democratic ideals are not easily propagated nor 
do they flourish in the vitiating environment of 
school bossism, the logical concomitant of super- 
vision. But the teaching of democracy inspiringly 
is the legitimate and principal duty of the teacher. 
Why then do we permit the existence of a system 
which largely nullifies or prevents the real work 
of the teacher ? Why is not the supervisory system 
abolished instanter? It must be understood that 
the system is bolstered up and preserved by its 
actual beneficiaries who are at the same time its 
victims, either consciously or unconsciously, and 
also by a very considerable number of prospective 
beneficiaries. This element, doubtless, constitutes 
one of its chief supports. Its continual existence 
is likewise due to the apathy of people generally, in 

19 



regard to educational work. They fail miserably 
to comprehend the scope and importance of school 
activities as a whole. The education of the public 
in school matters is the immediate task before 
those who hope to give an impetus to democratic 
education by the elimination of obstructing 
factors. 

But if the supervisory system is discarded, what 
plan of procedure is to be adopted? There must 
be some form of school organization, some method 
of cooperation, some device of coordination. It 
is hardly possible for an individual at a given 
moment to construct or outline a perfectly satis- 
factory form of educational procedure, or school 
organization. This can only be approximated by 
the combined efforts of many interested work- 
ers through a relatively long period of time. But 
it is quite feasible to initiate a working basis for 
a new departure. 

The first step is reasonably clear. There must 
be a radical change in the training and selection 
of teachers. This change necessitates a clarified 
vision with reference to the real and proper aim 
of education for all children alike. Naturally, 
logically, necessarily, this aim is the development 
of, the attainment of, ideal democratic citizenship. 
From this fact it follows that those boys and girls, 
men and women, who most thoroughly and com- 
prehensively grasp the basic principles of democ- 
racy, and who at the same time are imbued with 
the desire to train, to instruct, to impart knowledge, 
are the people who should become members of 

20 



the teaching profession. By close observation 
of mental processes of pupils by teachers — and this 
is surely an important phase of teachers' work — 
the teacher's judgment should become, if not a 
determining factor in estimating the qualifications 
for prospective teachers, at least a factor for careful 
consideration. Teachers may also render valuable 
assistance to students by helping them find them- 
selves, and thus avoid mistakes, which not infre- 
quently affect years of life, and often the whole 
life. Whether or not any fairly intelligent boy 
or girl, either with or without a penchant for 
teaching, may furnish the raw material out of 
which a teachers' training school is able to manu- 
facture an estimable product is a problem not 
easily solved. Whether teachers are born or 
made, it is an undoubted fact that not a few people 
enter the teaching ranks with slight endowment 
or acquirement for the work, with, indeed, little 
comprehension of the real nature of the duty. 
Pedagogical misfits are tragic accidents, and con- 
stitute a heavy community liability. Their op- 
portunities for serious mischief are numerous. It 
is essential, therefore, that the greatest care be 
exercised in the choice of teachers. Every possible 
effort must be made to keep out objectionable 
types. People who believe school work to be a 
business enterprise, who consider that the educa- 
tion of children should be entirely utilitarian, are 
dangerous. People who think the child should be 
hurried in the choice of a vocation and influenced 
in the matter primarily by commercial considera- 

21 



tions are not safe associates for children. The 
superficially educated person must be left out of 
consideration. The eligibility of what is usually 
called the self-made person is questionable. Close 
observers will find that the self-made man is possi- 
bly a poorly constructed product. The individual 
who supposes the acquisition of wealth to be the 
chief concern of one's existence is not a salutary 
influence in the schoolroom. 

But through what agency are teachers to be 
employed? What method is to be adopted to 
exclude the unfit, to insure the selection of the 
best type of instructor? Public school teachers 
are employees of the state, or a subdivision of the 
state, and teachers must be chosen through or by 
government regulations . 

The method used must be essentially demo- 
cratic. In any given school unit, city, town, village, 
or country district, the whole adult population 
should choose by regular election a number of 
representatives whose duty it would be to choose 
teachers, and having chosen them to cooperate 
with them in the professional work of teaching 
and in the business of school administration. But, 
it may be asked, how is the special fitness of such 
a council to be determined, and the answer is 
included in the larger problem concerning the 
relation which should exist between the schools 
and the community of which they are an essential 
element. This elected council or board would 
necessarily reflect, in a degree at least, the char- 
acter of the citizen body electing them. This is 

22 



always true of elected officials, however crude and 
unsatisfactory the method of election may be. 
From this it follows that the electing community 
should possess a high grade of intelligence and 
probity. Of course this is another way of saying 
that people exercising the functions of democracy 
should be capable of self-government. But the 
point to be emphasized here is the necessity for 
great care in the selection of teachers, if children 
are to be properly taught, and are to secure the 
sort of education which alone makes real democ- 
racy possible. At present, schools are practically 
isolated from the rest of the community. They 
sustain about the same relation to it that wards 
for patients with contagious diseases bear to the 
rest of the hospital. The reason for this isolation 
is that, in the minds of most people, schools are 
places to educate children, and their notions about 
the educating process are too vague for descrip- 
tion. From their point of view, the youngsters 
go regularly to a building called a school. After 
a number of years spent there, they end the pe- 
riod of incarceration by a jubilation performance 
bearing the name of graduation exercises, and 
emerge into community life eager for the serious 
business of making a living. This abnormal 
conception of education must be combated by a 
vigorous presentation of the correct view which 
contemplates no termination of the educational 
process. It should be continuous throughout life, 
varying in the period after leaving school only in 
form and method, from the school period. It is 

23 



true that in a general sort of way it is now recog- 
nized that people continue to gain knowledge and 
training after school days are ended, and that long 
experience results in the acquisition of great stores 
of information, but it is equally true that much, 
if not most, of the educational work done after 
leaving school is largely haphazard and aimless. 
Reading is desultory and done by many wholly or 
primarily for recreation or amusement. While 
it may be perfectly proper to do a certain amount 
of such reading this in itself is certainly not suffi- 
cient. This cannot be in any sense a substitute 
for a systematic course of reading and study 
which everyone should not only feel compelled 
to do, but should keenly enjoy doing. The 
numerous and varied departments of useful learn- 
ing are inexhaustible so that one need not fear 
of ever being without interesting and instructive 
material for study, however long one's span of life. 
Now it will readily be seen that this plan of con- 
tinuous and systematic study, extending through 
life, is vastly significant for many reasons. In 
the first place, it necessarily keeps the learner, 
of whatever age, in sympathy and in contact not 
only with the teaching body proper, but also with 
the students actually in school. Besides, with 
one's faculties fully and energetically engaged in 
the acquisition of knowledge, in the attainment 
of discipline, in the development of power to 
think intensively, one might hope in time to 
achieve the possibility of correctly estimating 
the true value of those things which now engross 

24 



so much of our time and thought, and which are 
relatively so unimportant. One might learn to 
minimize the import of material objects, and to 
magnify the consequence of spiritual concepts. 
In short, one might acquire vision, and -attain the 
strength of character which would enable one to 
live instead of simply drifting aimlessly to the 
close of one's earthly existence, as so many people 
now do. Yes, yes, perhaps, you say impatiently, 
but what tangible connection is there between 
this approximately ideal state of living and the 
proper method of employing teachers, the question 
under consideration? The connection is plain 
and simple, taking the form of association and 
cooperation between the school and the commu- 
nity. But a beginning in this direction must be 
made by intelligent action directed toward that 
end on the part of those who see the necessity of 
such action. Great movements do not start 
themselves nor do they usually loom very large 
at first. Such sporadic efforts as have been made 
heretofore to establish an alliance between the 
schools and the whole citizen body, or even the 
parents, have had slight results, if any at all. 
What is needed is a continuous, systematic, intel- 
ligently directed effort toward a perfectly definite 
and clearly recognized goal. 

This brings up the question of teachers' activi- 
ties outside the classroom. A most regrettable 
aloofness from community life exists on the part 
of teachers, generally. This aloofness of teachers 
is partly cause and partly effect of the isolation 

25 



of the schools. It is both vokmtary and involun- 
tary, and is due in no small degree to the false 
and unreasoning basis of social distinctions, and 
to a great extent to the lack of force and ability 
in teachers. 

Teachers as a group have no social prestige and 
no professional standing. Their standing is all 
in the classroom. Teachers, then, as a first step 
in ending the isolation of schools, must force the 
recognition of their work and of themselves by 
active and meritorious participation in community 
life. Having effected a change in the present 
abnormal situation by the inclusion of school people 
in the rest of the population, teachers must then 
consider it incumbent upon themselves to compel 
the community to accept a measure of responsi- 
bility for educational work, must cause people to 
recognize their obligation in the direction of general 
social improvement, and the importance of schools 
as a powerful factor for that purpose. Having 
once established a salutary condition with refer- 
ence to the relations between schools and the 
public, the whole number of adults in any commun- 
ity then furnish an eligible list from which their 
fellows may elect representatives to form a board 
of education prepared to render efficient service 
in the selection of teachers and in cooperating 
with them in school administration. 

With properly qualified teachers, qualified not 
only so far as the acquisition of knowledge is 
concerned, but from the standpoint of educational 
aims, and possessing the true democratic vision, 

26 



school administration may be greatly simplified, 
and the emphasis placed where it properly belongs, 
upon the actual work of teaching. The volumi- 
nous, cumbersome, and useless reports which 
consume so much time and energy may be entirely 
eliminated. Under the present supervisory sys- 
tem, teachers are often quite incapacitated for 
educational work because of the vast amount of 
useless clerical and statistical work with which 
they are burdened. 

The supervisory officials adopt the most asinine 
and exasperating of all possible methods in pre- 
tending to ascertain the relative value of teachers' 
work. Seemingly convinced, having contributed 
so largely to that end, that the teaching morale is 
at the lowest ebb, they proceed to choose the 
coarsest and most humiliating means of trying 
to prove their theory. Presumably they not 
infrequently succeed. 

In each school unit, building, the administra- 
tive work deemed necessary, indispensable, by 
the Board of Education, should be performed by 
the whole teaching force of the school, being appor- 
tioned by mutual agreement of the teaching staff. 
Under such conditions the esprit de corps of the 
teachers might be safely depended upon to secure 
satisfactory results in the willing performance of 
equally divided labor. The board of education 
and the teachers cooperating intelligently and 
sympathizingly would reduce to a minimum the 
obstacles to legitimate educational work. The 
two factors working together through elected 

27 



committees would provide the course of study, 
determine the required time for the completion 
of a given amount of work, decide upon the length 
of the school year, the salaries of teachers, and all 
other relevant matters, including the requisite 
kind and amount of machinery for executing 
whatever is decided upon. 

The basic reform in educational work is, through 
the abolishment of supervision, the equalization 
of position and salary for teachers, and this must 
come from the intelligent demand of teachers, 
seconded by the public sentiment of the commu- 
nity. The initiation of this somewhat radical 
departure, so necessary to the best interests of 
all concerned, including the whole hierarchy of 
supervisors, must come through the formulation 
of a workable plan, and its submission to the 
board of education. It is quite useless to rail 
at the arrogance, arbitrariness, unreasonableness, 
and injustice of school officials, whether of the 
employing school boards or of the employed super- 
vising staff. The remedy does not lie in joining 
labor unions, members of which are employed by 
private individuals or corporations for pecuniary 
profit. As to snobbishness as a cause for keeping 
away from labor unions, this is the result of igno- 
rance and folly quite as reprehensible as that 
which leads others into unions in order to shift 
responsibility from their own shoulders to the 
unions. It is not difficult to distinguish a funda- 
mental difference between the problem of the 
teacher with reference to the employing agency 

28 



and that of the labor unionist. The teachers are 
employees of the state and as citizens, members 
of the state, they are really their own employers. 
They are part of the body they are chosen to 
minister to. They serve the community, and as 
they are members of the community, they serve 
themselves. The purpose of the teachers' labor 
is not the production of a marketable material 
product, which is true of the employee of the 
private capitalist. The teacher is helping to 
direct rational action in the creation of spiritual 
values. Teachers in uniting with a labor union 
to effect reform are rejecting both a privilege and 
a duty to achieve the desired rectification through 
a better method, namely an appeal to public 
sentiment enlightened by the teachers as to the 
necessity or desirability for the reform advocated 
or demanded. 

They are shirking a duty, and retarding progress 
to the extent that the measure they advocate is a 
genuine reform movement. 

The evolution of democratic education requires 
that all teachers, both men and women, should 
be vitally interested in, and actively identified 
with, all public questions, both political and social, 
and the teachers themselves must accept respon- 
sibility for needed educational reforms, chief 
among which are steps leading to the abolishment 
of the supervisory system. Intelligent, vigorous, 
and continuous demand for its elimination will 
secure it, but back of this demand, giving to 
it force and direction, must be a clear recog- 

29 



nition of the necessity for it, and a vision of its 
meaning. 

Educational reform is badly needed in another 
direction, closely connected with and a part of 
the acceptance of the principle of the continuity 
of the educational process throughout life. This 
is the assumption by parents of their own legiti- 
mate part in the training of their children. At 
present, the schools are seriously handicapped, 
unable to perform distinctively school service 
properly because they are attempting to take over 
the work of the home. To such an extent is this 
done that the schools really place a premium upon 
the shiftlessness and lack of a sense of responsi- 
bility on the part of the parent. It seems to be 
an accepted principle of pedagogy that teachers 
are to assume the entire responsibility for the 
complete training and development of the child. 
Children, wholly undisciplined at home, are per- 
mitted to deport themselves at school in such a 
way as to test most severely the patience and 
disciplinary power of the teacher, and if the teach- 
ers cannot at once transform the viciously inclined 
little barbarians into the most attractive cherubs, 
they are likely to incur the charge of being poor 
disciplinarians. Doubtless many teachers become 
physical wrecks before they have time to develop 
poise, philosophy, and complete self-command, 
simply because they are burdened with work which 
legitimately belongs to the home, and for which 
the parents should be forced to assume the re- 
sponsibility. 

30 



The supervisory system, so far from controlling 
the situation, only aggravates it. If teachers 
were free to act, their own common sense and 
initiative would find a remedy in many cases. In 
order to relieve the schools of the work of parents, 
and leave them free to do their own, each school 
unit should adopt certain requirements with which 
the pupils are forced to comply, without annoy- 
ing teachers. If they refuse to do so, they should 
be sent home to their parents, who, confronted 
with compulsory school attendance on one hand, 
and school regulations on the other, would find 
themselves obliged to conform to both, to the 
great advantage of all concerned. 

In the interests of pupils, parents, and teachers, 
which from the proper point of view are the same, 
it is necessary to force cooperation of the home 
with the school, to a very much greater extent 
than it now exists. Indeed it hardly exists at all. 
There is absolutely no excuse for taxing the time 
and energy of the teaching body with the ordinary 
cleanliness and deportment of children. Where 
the parents are too densely ignorant to comprehend 
their responsibility, it would be much better in 
every way to teach them, and then compel them 
to act in accordance with their newly acquired 
knowledge. If the schools are compelled to per- 
form the task of the home in addition to their 
own duties, they cannot discharge either properly, 
and the state, the whole citizen body, suffers a 
double loss. 

The urgent need for a thoroughly revolutionized 
31 



public school system must be apparent to anyone 
sufficiently interested to give the subject the 
slightest consideration. We have disgracefully 
blundered on too long already. We must have 
universal intensive education, and first it is neces- 
sary to prepare public sentiment to demand it. 
This preparation must be preceded by an awaken- 
ing of the whole teaching body, and the awakening 
is primarily the task of the few who are already 
aroused. No failure in human history is so 
glaring, so complete, so disastrous, so tragic, as 
the failure of educators. They who from the 
nature of their work should be pioneers of progress, 
leaders in every advance movement, have, with 
few exceptions, been content to play badly a very 
minor part in the great drama of life. Teachers 
generally are not forceful, alert, nor properly 
aggressive. They apparently are not particu- 
larly helpful in the community in which they live. 
It may be claimed that through their influence 
in the schoolroom, they become leaders of thought, 
molding public sentiment. If this is true, there 
is no escape from the conviction that they are 
poor leaders. But commonly such impression 
as they make upon pupils in the classroom is 
not sufficiently forceful nor original to become a 
permanent possession. It is counteracted by 
influences outside of the school which if worse, 
or not so good, are more vigorous, stronger, more 
vital. Negative, timorous teachers, who rarely 
make excursions beyond the textbooks, and who 
endorse ready-made opinions, cannot be potent 

32 



factors in the formation of character, or in the 
shaping of opinion. That the defects and limita- 
tions which characterize teachers as a class are 
not due primarily to lack of innate ability, but 
are attributable to the factory system of school 
organization, there can be no doubt. This system 
is responsible for a devitalized, humdrum class- 
room routine which undermines the character of 
teachers, and prevents or retards the development 
of character in pupils. 

That teachers should be a living power, a vital 
force, not only in the classroom but in the com- 
munity, is, of course, not even a debatable ques- 
tion. It is incumbent upon every teacher to 
execute his task as if it were a determining agency 
in the welfare of the state, in the salvation of 
humanity, as indeed it is. We remember at the 
battle of Marathon, every Greek soldier fought as 
if the winning of the combat rested upon him, 
and it did. This is obviously true of every en- 
counter, and of success in every movement. In- 
dividual endeavor secures results. The group is 
always a collection of units, the state an aggrega- 
tion of individuals, and organized society cannot 
approximate its attainable best until the individual 
men and women who compose it are developed 
to the limit of their natural capacity in the direction 
of their greatest strength. 

At this point comes the poignant, humiliating 
thought that this great country, so rich in its foun- 
dation, its inherited institutions, and limitless in 
its possibilities, has fallen so immeasurably short 

33 



in achievement. We rejoice in the ideahsm of 
our compatriots to the extent that it exists, but 
we know it is far from universal, that for a large 
number of our inhabitants, even citizens, there are 
no ideals. They merely subsist on the lowest 
or very nearly the lowest plane of human life, 
concerned about supplying the primitive needs 
of food, raiment, and lodging, to which may be 
added a desire for strong drink and the movies, 
appetites superinduced by a pseudo-civilization. 

It is no part of good citizenship or true patriot- 
ism to refuse to recognize shortcomings, individual 
or national, or to attempt to derive comfort from 
the result of a comparison of our country with 
others. The comparison may seem favorable 
to us but this does not prove that we have used 
our opportunities to the best advantage, that we 
have accomplished our best. It may not, and 
with reference to some nations does not, show 
even relative superiority. This nation had a 
great inheritance, a foundation of glorious tradi- 
tions. Have we lived up to those traditions? 
Have we added to our inheritance? No thinking 
person familiar with the facts of history will 
maintain that our progress has been creditable. 
We have often overemphasized those things of 
least importance and underestimated essentials 
in democratic development. We have permitted 
our government to cheapen and lower American 
citizenship by extending the franchise to hordes 
of foreigners who have no conception of democracy, 
of Americanism, but who sought America for 

34 



purely economic reasons. We have permitted 
these aHen citizens to be exploited by selfish 
interests in the production of wealth, unfairly 
distributed. We have permitted overwork and 
underpay. We have allowed the existence of 
crass ignorance, poverty, and disease among the 
toilers. We have endured the idleness and extrava- 
gance of those who toil not. We have tolerated 
the stupid insolence of wealth, the possessors of 
which often arrogantly consider themselves a 
select and superior class whose title to the owner- 
ship of the earth none may dispute. 

The unrest and bitterness which have been the 
inevitable result of this most unsatisfactory and 
unjust situation have furnished a wide and fertile 
field for the operation of the demagogue and the 
unscrupulous radical, bent only upon giving the 
social wheel such a turn as will bring them on top 
regardless of the general welfare of society. In 
addition to these unprincipled agitators, there 
are the well-meaning but fundamentally ignorant 
and badly balanced social reformers who are la- 
boriously, ardently, incessantly engaged in social 
patchwork of a distinctly crazy-quilt character. 
The excited attempts of these social marplots to 
ameliorate conditions generally may do much 
harm but they are an inevitable feature of the 
present extremely imperfect social order. The 
only way to eliminate them is to make them impos- 
sible by initiating such fundamental changes as 
will leave no room for their makeshift reforms. 

Effects never fail to follow causes although the 
35 



sequence is not always clear. An unwise or unjust 
government policy is sure to bring in its train 
innumerable evils difficult to eradicate, and we 
now quite naturally find that the toleration of 
ignorance, the permission of class legislation, 
obliviousness to the various manifestations of 
injustice -and wrong are decidedly not paying 
investments. Bills are presented for collection, 
and the liquidation of the debt introduces a prob- 
lem not easily solved. For a career of wrong and 
folly we have been indicted by the spirit of de- 
mocracy, tried by her highest tribunal, found 
guilty upon an overwhelming volume of unim- 
peachable evidence, and sentenced to punishment, 
which we are now all enduring. This punish- 
ment is, of course, not the same for all members 
of society, but differs in its nature and intensity 
for each class of the varying elements which 
combined constitute the whole composite social 
organism, according to the degree of aesthetic, 
ethical, and spiritual development attained by 
each. The sentence imposed by the court of 
democracy is indefinite, the duration depending 
upon the progress attained in the realization of 
not only political democracy, but industrial and 
social, likewise. But first must come the vision 
and the desire for its attainment. Hitherto, 
we have not wanted it, we have had no conscious- 
ness of its value, no perception of its significance, 
no real sense of its need. We have been content 
with words, words, meaningless words, without 
form, without content. We have failed to com- 

36 



prehend that acts of injustice cannot be committed 
with impunity. We have not understood that 
no unit in the collective mass may be neglected 
without injury to the whole, that not a single 
individual may be criminal, or ignorant, or sordid 
without vitiating in a measure the life of the state. 
It would be rash to assume that any considerable 
portion of the whole population is even now con- 
scious of our shortcomings, individual or national. 
During the war there were some optimistic souls 
who looked for the speedy advent of the millen- 
nium, but people are not often shocked into sanc- 
tity or decency for any appreciable length of time. 
Those qualities are innate, or of slow growth. 
We cannot attain results without effort. The 
plans of anarchists, sociahsts, or members of any 
other cult to change conditions overnight, to make 
people happy, good, useful through the adop- 
tion of their particular hobby, must be heavily 
discounted. People cannot be legislated into the 
Republic of Heaven, nor achieve perfection 
vicariously. Heaven is attained through long 
preparation in the form of honest and laborious 
work. 

r The establishment of democracy can come only 
through education. Many people talk glibly 
about democracy who have but an extremely 
vague conception of its real meaning. This is 
especially true of extreme radicals and ultra-con- 
servatives. Both of these groups have in mind 
class rule, more or less clearly defined. Rule 
of the proletariat is certainly no more democratic 

37 



than rule by a capitalistic, or wealthy, class. In 
fact, the very existence of these classes consti- 
tutes a negation of democracy. Clearly this is 
true of industrial democracy, and political democ- 
racy would almost surely be followed by indus- 
trial. Both the radical and the conservative are 
astray on fundamentals. Neither has the correct 
viewpoint, and both are biased by class conscious- 
ness. This is largely because both alike have 
practically left out of consideration the subject 
of education and its vital importance in the evolu- 
tion of democracy. The ultra-conservative resents 
what he considers an encroachment upon his 
prerogatives and he knows intuitively that the 
rumbling of discontent presages an upheaval 
destined to be of far-reaching significance in its 
effect upon the social order. The radical glares 
with violent hatred at the possessor of leisure, 
opulence, and social prestige. These are types 
and each is superficially light because they are 
both fundamentally wrong. They are right in 
the sense that they are what they inevitably 
must be. Their attitude is ludicrous and at the 
same time tragic. Furthermore it is fraught 
with danger. Whenever, through all historic 
time, those two opposing forces have gone into 
action, things have happened. It reminds one of 
the story of the student who when asked what 
would happen if an irresistible force met an im- 
movable body replied that "he didn't just know, 
but he thought it would knock hell out of things." 
It is so sad to think that neither the upholder 

38 



of the old system nor the exponent of the chang- 
ing order has been able to discover the remedy for 
his troubles. It is so simple. What is needed is 
a modification of the two types of the social order 
until they finally blend into one, and equality — not 
identity — is established as far as human agency 
can create it. The alchemy which must be de- 
pended upon to effect this change is education, not 
industrial, not vocational, not the scrappy, shal- 
low, soporific time-killing performance we now 
dignify by that name, but that training which 
assists mental development in the direction of 
truth and the attainment of spiritualness. It 
must aid in establishing a correct standard for 
measuring values through the application of com- 
mon-sense principles. It must modify the glam- 
our of social prominence and official position, and 
teach the stupid emptiness of social distinctions 
which have no basis of real merit. The delusive 
effect of social and official prestige often forms an 
actually disturbing factor which tends to divert 
from the achievement of high purpose. 

Progress in the direction of genuine democracy 
must come through educational processes, through 
the consciously directed effort of the individual 
along the line of clear thinking, and lofty aims 
crystallized in the solid achievement of correct, 
honest living. People generally, in thinking of 
reform, seem to think in terms of mass, society, 
the State. It is essential that we learn to think 
of the individual as the important element to 
be considered, reached, made right. It is this 

39 



1. 



fact which makes the work of the teacher in the 
classroom so vitally, fundamentally important. 
The welfare of the State, the aggregation of indi- 
viduals which make it, depends upon the character 
of the individual, upon the thoroughness with 
which the boys and girls grasp the essentials of 
good citizenship and assimilate them. This is 
accomplished, not through a superficial knowledge 
of a few isolated facts of history or by memorizing 
an outline of civics, but through the conscious 
acceptance and the living realization of the duties 
and obligations, no less than the rights and privi- 
leges of citizenship. Teachers of youth frequently 
err seriously in demanding so little in the tasks set 
for pupils that the latter fail to realize their capac- 
ity for work, and to experience the satisfaction 
which is the reward of good work accomplished 
through great effort. Satisfaction with, commenda- 
tion of, slight exertion and small achievement on 
the part of the child, the pupil, is the rule according 
to long established and carefully observed tradi- 
tions, and because of this, many valuable years of 
time are wasted. The pupil consciously, often 
maliciously, fails to accomplish anything that 
even remotely approximates his best, because he 
knows his work will be accepted, and, perhaps, 
applauded. Where little is expected, and less de- 
manded, slight indeed is the performance. This 
is true, both in conduct and study. Whether or 
not this is due to the total depravity of human 
nature, the theologians may decide — to their own 
satisfaction, if so inclined. It is a fact of human 

40 



experience. The failure of the child to perform 
a given task as well as he is able, whether an occa- 
sional lapse, or, as it is likely to become, a fixed 
practice, is both illogical and unethical. We have 
become so accustomed to the observance of, and 
veneration for, unreasonable traditions, that rep- 
utable speakers sometimes preface their talks 
to children with some story of their own youth- 
ful folly, for the perpetration of which there 
was no justification for them, and certainly 
would be none for their hearers, in order to 
establish a basis of friendly understanding be- 
tween them. 

A large part of the teacher's legitimate work lies 
in making the pupil comprehend the necessity for 
the willing performance of hard tasks, and the 
satisfaction which accompanies solid achievement. 
We seem afraid of accomplishing too much, and 
often hear expressed the pernicious sentiment 
that too much must not be expected, in connection 
with some activity. Surely there is neither 
reason nor sense in expecting, or willingly accept- 
ing anything but the best attainable, in any Hne 
of endeavor. Many wrecked lives and much poor 
work are largely due to youth's failure to become 
enured to hardship, to be trained to endure un- 
pleasantness, to learn to practice exertion which 
leads to success, to acquire self-command, self- 
reliance, and a sense of responsibility, to gain self- 
expression in its highest form, that is, to live. 
Youth entering upon its career without home 
discipline, or efficient school training, becomes 

41 



driftwood upon life's stormy sea, tossed hither 
and yon by every untoward circumstance. 

Powerless to row against the current, it drifts 
with it. Pathetic, indeed, is the lot of the help- 
less one, and great the guilt of parents and teachers 
who are primarily responsible. 

The tendency to applaud and the constant 
practice of acclaiming the good deeds of an ele- 
ment of the population as representative of the 
whole, are altogether reprehensible as they conceal 
the remissness of many, and tend to relieve them 
of a sense of responsibility. Neither the slacker, 
the profiteer, nor the traitor in any other form 
can possibly be represented by the patriot, the 
worker. The two classes are on wholly different 
planes of existence, separated seemingly by aeons 
of time. But the "average citizen" must pre- 
sumably possess some of the attributes of the two 
extremes; therefore, the average citizen must in 
terms of ideal democratic citizenship be rated 
low. In a democracy there is no place for aver- 
ages. The two things are so incompatible that 
they cannot exist together. ** Eternal vigilance" 
/ is the price of liberty, but this vigilance, to be 
fully effective, must be exercised in the education 
of youth, and continued by the individual men 
and women through life, for individual liberty is 
secure only through democracy, which is ruled by 
all the people, but all of the people do not rule, 
cannot rule, unless they possess certain qualifica- 
tions. We may have a government mixture of 
. autocracy, oligarchy, timocracy, mobocracy, and 
' 42 ' 



/ 



democracy, and name the composition democracy, 
but unless the individual citizens who compose 
the State are trained, alert, capable, they will 
have no real part in government. The functions 
of government may be carried on in the name of 
the people when a very small proportion of them 
form the active principals or participants, meaning, 
of course, such participation as a representative 
democracy contemplates. A very essential part 
of the training for citizenship is in the acquisition of 
profound knowledge, familiarity with the history, 
the literature, and philosophy of past civilizations. 
Enlightenment must be included among the civic 
virtues to ensure the establishment of a just govern- 
ment, and much more is it required to perpetuate 
it. The ignorant, however virtuous, are in con- 
stant danger of becoming the dupes or victims of 
vicious elements which, through organization 
and the arts of trickery and deceit practiced by 
the unscrupulous, may secure control of the govern- 
ment. When this happens^ the result is corrup- 
tion, inefficiency, and general disaster for the best 
interests of the whole people, and a severe test of 
the nominal democracy. We hear much about 
trained leadership, the necessity for training lead- 
ers, but a democracy requires such preparation 
for all its citizens as will fit them for leadership. 
Those essentially unfit for leadership, are poorly 
prepared to choose leaders, and the government 
is likely to degenerate into a close corporation. 
Education which prepares for democracy carries 
with it the idea of control of government by all 

43 



the people, literally. It connotes not only a 
claim to rights and privileges but a very vital 
sense of duty and responsibility for each and all. 
To most people, at present, the government is a 
far-away, vague sort of institution which is to be 
blamed when things go wrong. Otherwise, their 
connection with it is extremely remote, and their 
interest in it very slight. 

The word government may be correctly used 
in two senses. Written with a big G it means all 
the people, the people whose duty it is to control 
it, and to be responsible for it. Written with a 
small g, it means the group of administrative 
officials chosen by the voters to put into operation 
their policies with reference to all domestic affairs 
and foreign relations. It is the agent of the people, 
responsible to them, and for which they are re- 
sponsible to themselves, each to all, and all to 
each. The aloofness of the people from their 
government is comparable to their aloofness from 
the schools, and in one case they are as culpable 
as in the other. It is the immediate task of the 
teachers to make them comprehend their proper 
relation to both. 

The basic difficulty in establishing genuine 
democracy lies in the fact that comparatively few 
have the democratic vision, and really believe 
in democracy. Many persons are horribly afraid 
of democracy. Some are sentimentally opposed 
to it. From their point of view it lacks variety 
and picturesqueness. Such people in thinking 
of social and political questions invariably think 

44 



in terms of classes, and with reference to change, 
reform, they think of a more or less violent or 
sudden social upheaval which will bring upper- 
most, or, at least, on the same social plane as 
themselves, the "lower classes." Needless to 
say, such thinkers have no comprehension of the 
thorough and universal training and education 
which alone make democracy possible. *'The 
cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy" 
may be expanded into — ^The elimination of the 
objectionable features of a nominal democracy 
will come through the education which qualifies 
for real democracy, and, therefore, education is 
the vital and fundamental problem of a democratic 
State. 

** Where there is no vision, the people perish," 
but the vision must be individual. . He or she 
who has no vision is a failure. The training con- 
sidered indispensable for leaders must be all- 
inclusive. It is requisite for all. No exclusion 
is democratic. As to whether or not all people 
have equal natural ability has nothing whatever 
to do with the question of equal and intensive 
training for all. If there are those who possess 
less natural ability than others, logically they 
demand greater consideration in educational pro- 
cesses in order to overcome the handicap. We 
cannot remember too thoroughly that equality 
and identity are not the same. Victor Hugo long 
ago found it necessary to emphasize the distinc- 
tion in discussing the equality of men and women. 
At the present time we have absolutely no satis- 

45 



factory data to show that in a given environment, 
with the same degree of training, people are not 
equal, neither have we any data to prove they 
are. The question of natural equality may safely 
be left to nature as it has no bearing at all upon 
the necessity for equal cultural advantages for 
everyone. We apply the scientific principle of 
intensive cultivation to the raising of wheat and 
corn. Why withhold it from the training of 
human beings? The objectors to "wasting" edu- 
cational advantages for all alike are influenced 
largely by the relatively unimportant fact that in- 
tensive education may mean increased taxation, 
and at the same time higher remuneration for 
educated workers, but they forget that this pecu- 
niary expenditure will be overbalanced by the 
elimination of human waste. They fail to realize 
that even from the most material point of view, 
schoolhouses are cheaper than prisons, and teach- 
ers less expensive than criminal lawyers. But 
the opposition of most of the objectors to real 
democracy, for which educational equality or 
equal educational advantages must largely pave 
the way, is based upon their dread of the pass- 
ing of the old order, of the disappearance of the 
castle and the thatched roof, of the squire and 
the peasant, or the American equivalent, the 
mansion and the hovel, the millionaire and the 
wage slave. Now this mediseval type of mind 
might force itself to become reconciled to the 
absence of antiquated institutions were it possible 
for it to visualize the significance of impending 

46 



changes. There are new and important elements 
in our industrial and political life which may in 
a short time become the determining factors in 
momentous changes in the national life. The 
''labor element" is already a possible dominant 
factor, and the steadily increasing newly enfran- 
chised women constitute an uncertain quantity, 
both politically and industrially. It must be 
remembered that both of these classes have been 
unaccustomed to the exercise of great power, and 
it is no reflection upon either to recognize the 
possibility of their becoming impressionable — even 
inflammable — material under the influence of the 
demagogue and the irresponsible reformer. It 
is true the laborer is not a new voter, but no care- 
ful observer fails to understand that his status 
is changed and that the laborer is becoming in- 
creasingly and acutely conscious of the change. 
These new factors in the political life of the country 
constitute an additional reason for new educational 
emphasis, for, if properly trained, they will add 
greatly to the stability of the State; if neglected, 
they may be a source of great danger. Intensive 
universal education, therefore, is not only a pre- 
requisite to democracy, and an ethical require- 
ment, but is in line with the sanest possible 
philosophy. 

In view of the present world cataclysm, and 
the lessons which it should teach, we must empha- 
size anew the indispensableness of education, but 
democratic education, that which prepares pri- 
marily for citizenship. A certain amount of 

47 



vocational, of industrial training may be necessary. 

(Indeed, a very large amount may be desirable, 
but care must be exercised in keeping it subor- 
dinate to the intellectual and moral education 
for which it, in no way, from no point of view, 
can be made a substitute. Let children be trained 
for industry by all means, but first, in time, and 
first in importance, train their souls and their 
, minds. Give them an opportunity, all the time 
required, for broad, general culture, for acquaint- 
ance with the literature, the history, and the 
scientific achievements of the past. Help them 
to evolve a sane philosophy of life, remembering 
they are first of all sentient beings, citizens of the 
State, social units, with infinite possibilities, that 
they emphatically are not primarily factors in 
the production of wealth nor cogs in the wheels 
of an autocratic State machine. 

The keynote of the future must be a recogni- 
tion of the vital importance of the individual, an 
enlarged conception of social responsibility and a 
clarified vision of relative values. Materialism 
and higher civilization are incongruous. "Ye 
cannot serve God and Mammon," is a simple 
and emphatic form of stating a vital truth. You 
cannot worship material things and appreciate 
spiritual values. Wealth is relatively unimpor- 
tant. Very little of it suffices for the contentment 
and happiness of the properly developed man or 
woman. 

In the correct education of youth it is necessary 
to minimize the relative importance of wealth, 

48 



to discourage eagerness to accumulate it, to treat 
with disapprobation any such attempt which in 
any way involves a sacrifice of higher values. In 
the future the establishment of justice, with all 
which that connotes, must be the slogan, and 
surely providing equal opportunity for all is 
included. To say that this means universal, 
intensive education, is simply to state an elemental 
fact. To set in operation forces necessary to 
establish the principle of justice as the basis of all 
poHtical, industrial, and social movements, does 
not require a violent upheaval in the established 
order, but it does necessitate a fundamental change 
in educational processes and in industrial devel- 
opment. It does require the vision to understand 
that the mental, moral, and spiritual development ^ 
of the individual, of all the individuals who together ) 
make the State, is of paramount importance. It v 
is necessary to realize that children may not be 
deprived of educational advantages for economic 
reasons, that they must not be exploited in the 
accumulation of material gain for a few. To coin 
the lifeblood of the weak into gold, and then 
toss the wreck to the care of organized charity 
is not to be longer endured. The extremes of 
poverty and wealth, palaces and huts, continuous 
leisure and endless toil are the negation of democ- 
racy, of justice, of humanity. They are incom- 
patible with a civilization worthy of the name. 
To establish justice demands no demonstration 
of force, no destruction of property, no great 
sacrifice for any individual or group, but it does 

49 



require a changed emphasis, the cessation of vul- 
gar display, the evolution of a new order. 

The fastidious to whom the proximity of the 
uncouth toiler is odious must learn that the solu- 
tion of their difficulty lies not in rejecting the 
comradeship of the man or woman, but in refining 
and humanizing the objectionable type. There 
must be a coalescence of the various elements of 
the State in a bond of equality, not identity. 

This is no visonary scheme. Its inauguration 
requires only the practical application of common- 
sense principles to the affairs of life. It involves 
not simply the intellectual perception of the very 
elementary fact that ignorance, poverty, and physi- 
cal deterioration, which inevitably follow igno- 
rance and poverty, are not a national asset, but 
such acute realization of the fact as will cause 
acceptance of responsibility for the removal of 
ignorance and poverty. 

If we are to have real democracy, we must 
provide the indispensable conditions for its exist- 
ence, and these are the possession of thorough 
knowledge and the practice of virtue by each and 
every member of the State. This is the period of 
world reconstruction which requires all the intel- 
ligence, wisdom, philosophy, and virtue obtainable 
everywhere. The process of reconstruction must 
extend through an indefinite period, and this is 
an opportune occasion for beginning to place 
special emphasis upon civic training, and teachers 
should be inspired by the consciousness that theirs 
is the high privilege of rendering inestimable 

50 



service in establishing democracy, and the rule 
of justice throughout the world. The need of 
this hour and of all future time is men and women 
of broad vision, high ideals, strong convictions, 
and dauntless courage. Doubtless when the 
limits of our present vision have been reached, 
new vistas of progress will afford the impelling 
motive to greater endeavor and higher achievement. 



51 



